Popular Culture

October 31, 2011

What better day to talk about vampires and werewolves than Halloween? Elaine A. Heath is here to discuss her new book, The Gospel according to Twilight: Women, Sex, and God. Does Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster series offer any theological insight? Could the Twilight books be sending dangerous messages to young girls? Heath offers her take just in time for the release of Breaking Dawn, Part One.

Elaine A. Heath is Associate Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. An active participant in the emerging church conversation, she is an ordained United Methodist minister.

Michael J. Gilmour is Associate Professor of New Testament and English Literature at Providence College in Manitoba, Canada. He is the author of Gods and Guitars: Seeking the Sacred in Post-1960s Popular Music and editor of Call Me the Seeker: Listening to Religion in Popular Music.

April 26, 2010

Respected author and theologian Walter Brueggemann joins us today for a penetrating look at today’s most pressing issues, including terrorism, health care, and the recent economic collapse. He offers guidance for navigating through these challenging times through neighborliness, covenanting, and reconstruction. His new book, Journey to the Common Good, is now available from Westminster John Knox Press.

January 25, 2010

Hot on the heels of James Cameron’s award-winning blockbuster film Avatar, Craig Detweiler joins us today for a serious look at a fun subject—video games! Detweiler is the editor of the first exploration of video games and their theological dimensions: Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God.

Craig Detweiler is Director of the Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture at Pepperdine University in Malibu. His cultural commentary has appeared on ABC's Nightline, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and in The New York Times. His comedic documentary, Purple State of Mind, won Best Spiritual Film at the 2008 Breckenridge Festival of Film and the Audience Award at the 2009 Tallahassee Film Festival. For more information, visit http://detweiler.wjkbooks.com. He also blogs at craig.purplestateofmind.com.

October 26, 2009

Since being introduced to American television audiences over two decades ago, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson have become one of the most well-known, beloved, and irreverent animated families of all time. Yet even in The Simpsons one can find elements of faith and morality. Here to discuss the ways in which spirituality and religion are reflected in this longest-running comedy in television history is Mark Pinsky, author of the newly revised edition of the best-selling book that Booklist calls “seriously funny,” The Gospel according to The Simpsons.

A completely revised study guide for this volume in the popular WJK Gospel According to… series has just been released.

August 31, 2009

Who among us has not experienced hearing a song that moved us deeply, that spoke to us in a truly spiritual way, despite the secular nature of the song itself? Millions of fans around the world have found that inspiration in the music of U2, arguably the biggest band in the world today. Now, on the heels of U2’s latest studio album No Line on the Horizon, Greg Garrett, author of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2, joins us for an engaging and informative discussion about the spirituality that drives the band and its music.

Greg Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church, and Writer in Residence at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. He is one of America’s leading authorities on religion and culture. A frequent media guest, he regularly speaks and leads workshops and retreats across the US and overseas.